


sunset daydreams

by uwuxuxi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Light Angst, M/M, Past Jung Sungchan/Osaki Shotaro, Pining, Summer Romance, boys are compared to seasons so often.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uwuxuxi/pseuds/uwuxuxi
Summary: What does it mean when you fall in fruit-flavored love but you don’t even get the boy’s number?
Relationships: Jung Sungchan/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Jung Sungchan/Osaki Shotaro
Comments: 24
Kudos: 83





	sunset daydreams

**Author's Note:**

> WHEW hello! when i said that i wanted to write a sungtaro....this is not what i wanted it to be but. hey! i really like how this came out and i hope you enjoy sungchan and his love of boys and seasons.
> 
> beta'd–sharks i owe you my life.

Late summer is a time for passing love.

Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, actually. Not every person that you meet at the end of the summer is someone you fall in love with. Not every person that you meet at the end of the summer is someone who will pass you by.

But many of them are.

Some boys you meet at a beach bonfire are meant to just be that—boys you meet at a beach bonfire. That boy might have big hands that leave burning trails up your sides as you lay in the bed of a pick up, fire crackling a few feet away, and _Redbone_ pouring from someone’s speakers. That boy may have lips that taste like cheap beer and sea salt, but for those glowing moments where you are in that boy’s arms, the whole world melts away and you can fall in love if you’re dumb enough.

Sungchan is definitely dumb enough.

Summer boys are best left in the summer where they came from and can’t hurt your feelings. Their sun-warmed lips and dance-strong thighs need to be put in a box and buried deep, deep, _deep_ within the sand. Summer boys aren’t meant to be loved after August 31st. At the very latest, a summer boy should be loved until September 21st, when fall begins and more stable boys have presented themselves for loving.

Osaki Shotaro is a summer boy, of this Sungchan is absolutely certain, but he is the first boy that Sungchan has ever loved. He's had crushes both fleeting and long-standing but Sungchan knows that he loves Shotaro.

Yes—he loves him, because he’s a fucking idiot and when he met his first summer boy, he couldn’t stop himself from taking his heart right from his chest and holding it out to him in offering.

Halloween is just around the corner and Sungchan is still thinking about a warm body pressed against his back, chin hooked over his shoulder, and a hand splayed over his belly as they watch Disney+ together. Sungchan remembers nights spent feeling warm and syrupy with Shotaro’s tongue in his mouth and _Tangled_ throwing colors on the wall. He should have left his summer boy behind weeks ago.

Sungchan doesn’t even have his _number_.

Chenle has no pity for him, which is to be expected but it still hurts. “If you don’t have his number why are you so caught up? It can’t have been that serious, Channie.”

Maybe it wasn’t, in the grand scheme of things. Maybe there will be other summer boys. Maybe that lovely boy with the sunshine smile and his pretty yellow pens in Sungchan’s survey ii class can be an autumn boy—stable and familiar. Donghyuck has soft hands and he’s brought Sungchan coffee a few times. Donghyuck has nice lips, too. He likes to hook his ankle around Sungchan’s and they’ll sit like that while Professor Suh goes on a tangent about the inherent homoeroticism in art. Donghyuck will giggle and Sungchan allows his thoughts to move away from Shotaro’s giggle and the warmth of the setting summer sun behind him. 

But then they get out of art history; Donghyuck goes to music theory, Sungchan goes to get lunch with Chenle and Jisung, and Sungchan’s thoughts reach desperately back to Shotaro. His mouth around noon would taste like strawberry ramune and peach gummies and Sungchan changes direction to go to the campus market to scratch that particular itch.

It’s not the same but it works.

He closes his bottle of ramune and looks at Chenle who is staring at him expectantly. Sungchan doesn’t know what he wants to hear from him and rests his chin on the lid. “It was a summer fling. Warm and sweet, but like, it felt like it could be more.” Jisung points his chopsticks at Sungchan’s remaining sushi and he pushes it out to him. “Until it wasn’t more. I want to leave him in the summer, I do.”

“Then what’s the problem? It’s not like you love him, Channie!” Sungchan looks away from him, hands curling around the metal bottle. “...Oh. Oh, no. Channie, you’ll never _see him again_.”

Jisung wrinkles his nose and smacks Chenle’s hand lightly. “Don’t say that, you’re not being supportive.”

“Jisung, he’s set himself up for heartbreak and I'm supposed to think that’s romantic? This isn’t a fucking teen movie. This isn’t _Grease_.”

_Summer lovin’_. Sungchan always hated that song but it’s hitting a little too hard right now.

Sungchan had gone to California to visit his brother’s studio, to marvel at the beautiful work Taeyong was making and then to spend time in his brother-in-law’s gallery to see where Doyoung was hard at work selling Taeyong’s art, and then to the beach to fall in love with a boy he can’t have. Shotaro taught him how to roller skate and held his hand while Shotaro’s friend, Yuta, pierced his cartilage. They got matching temporary tattoos on the boardwalk and kissed the sweet and spicy mango _paletas_ from each other’s lips while the frozen treat dripped down their fingers. All of the memories exist in this lovely clementine glow and Sungchan understands where Chenle is coming from better than Chenle thinks he does. Shotaro feels like a dream, a feverish whirl of carnival lights and bright laughs, but he was real. He had weight when he laid against Sungchan’s back, his arms had heat where they wrapped around his belly, and his lips were pillow soft against his own. That heavy existence is hard for Sungchan to shake. 

What does it mean when you fall in fruit-flavored love but you don’t even get the boy’s number?

“I know it’s not _Grease_ , Chenle. But I also know that it feels…”

“World changing?” Jisung suggests very kindly and Sungchan offers him a smile. Jisung has sharp edges when provoked but Sungchan is feeding him and nursing a bruised heart, so he’s being nice. It’s appreciated. “You have his name, right? Why don’t you check to see if he has an Instagram?”

Because checking to see if Shotaro has an Instagram is asking for Sungchan’s bruised heart to break and bleed and he likes the clementine-strawberry-mango flavored memories so much.

They can’t sour. He can’t _let_ them sour.

Sungchan opens his ramune and takes a long sip of the bubbly bandaid before he picks up his phone, swiping past the picture of his and Shotaro’s roller skates toe-to-toe on the sandy boardwalk on his lock screen to click on Instagram. He types ‘Osaki Shotaro’ into the search and inhales slowly when he sees the profile. He knows that Chenle is staring at him and lets out the breath he’s been holding as he clicks the account and lets his eyes rove over it quickly.

Sungchan isn’t scrolling for very long when he finds a picture of himself looking out at the ocean. The sunset is setting the water aflame and Sungchan remembers this day vividly. He doesn’t remember Shotaro taking the picture but he does remember being pressed into the sandy blanket and getting kissed until the burning sun vanished below the horizon. 

**shotaromilktea_** : are you still watching the sun?

The post is from a week ago. Sungchan scrolls back up and chews lightly on his lower lip as he considers a picture of Shotaro with another boy in his lap. the boy’s head rests on his shoulder and the hand that’s not holding his phone is resting on the boy’s ass.

**shotaromilktea_** : ♡

Sungchan realizes there’s another picture in the post and holds his bottle a little too tight in his hand when the boy in Shotaro’s lap has his face tilted up and his lips are pressed against Shotaro’s. 

It's from two days ago. He scrolls past the picture of himself and sees more of the smaller boy. He's fond of loose sweater vests over shirt sleeve polos, oversized shirts with biker shorts, and wears sweet wire-rim glasses. There are still sprinkles of the summer with Sungchan and Sungchan finds the video of Yuta piercing his ear. They’re all laughing and it’s warm, like peaches in the July sun. Sungchan is _there,_ he had weight in Shotaro’s life, too, but Sungchan was a summer boy and this boy with his face in Shotaro’s neck and lips on Shotaro’s lips seems like stability. Steady like fall, beautiful like winter, sure like spring. 

A boy for all seasons. 

Sungchan was left in the summer, but is fondly remembered. 

Why is it so hard to do the same with Shotaro?

He must have been staring at the page for too long because Chenle reaches over to take his phone, crowding over the device with Jisung to do some investigating of their own. Sungchan finishes his ramune and looks at the ceiling when Jisung says _shit_ with a fierceness. Summer tingles his veins like feeling coming back to limbs that have lost it and while he wants to hold onto it desperately, summer is long gone.

It is October. The wind is starting to bite and is pushing dying red leaves off of trees. The time for clementine sweet gazes and sand between toes is over. His piercing is healed and his temporary tattoo long since faded. The _paletas_ he can get in the grocery store aren’t as good as the ones on the boardwalk and nothing is the same as it was then but—

It’ll be alright. Summer is a three month long adventure full of warmth and excitement and love, but only once.

“Channie,” Chenle says, too soft and too careful and Sungchan lowers his eyes from the ceiling to look at him. He blinks a little and taps his nails against the metal bottle in thought. “Hey, are you okay?”

Is he okay? The seasons are all transient and so was Sungchan to Shotaro. Shotaro who lives full time in Southern California only knows summers but the boys he meets during them always change, don’t they? Sungchan came to _him_ and Sungchan left _him_. Sungchan’s mouth tastes like strawberry ramune but the cloyingly sweet flavor doesn’t carry Shotaro underneath it because all of that was left on the beach.

Is Sungchan okay?

He takes his phone back quietly and unblocks Shotaro because Chenle and Jisung think they’re helping but they’re not, not really. Sungchan takes one breath, then two, and takes a long sip of water as he follows Shotaro and washes the strawberry flavoring from his tongue. His chest aches but that’s okay for now.

Shotaro follows Sungchan back within the next minute and sends a paragraph of ◜▿◝ before saying that he was looking for Sungchan but forgot his surname and didn’t have his number.

Just because you love the summer boy and he breaks your heart doesn’t mean you can’t be his friend. 

“Not yet,” Sungchan admits after returning the sentiment and a (◡‿◡✿) before he locks his phone and smiles at Chenle and Jisung. They’re worried about him and he doesn’t blame them for that. “But I’ll be fine.”

♡

Shotaro kisses Sungchan until he has to pull away to screw his head back on straight, hands gentle on Sungchan’s jaw as he peppers gentle kisses over his cheeks and nose. He’s warm, heavy, and even though Taeyong told him not to fall in love with any of the beautiful California boys, Sungchan looks at Shotaro and knows he can’t listen to him. Not when Shotaro giggles against his lips and the cool, late night ocean breeze is tickling over them as they lay in the sand.

They should have gone home hours ago.

Sungchan should go back to Taeyong and Doyoung’s house. He should—

Shotaro kisses him again and Sungchan doesn’t care what he should or shouldn’t do. He simply slides his arms around this beautiful summer boy’s neck and lets himself melt in his warmth.

There will be sand in their hair in the morning and Sungchan will have a killer hangover but for now, there are just two summer boys kissing each other on the beach while the waves crash against the shore and the world turns slowly on its axis.

As days pass into night, this love will pass into a gentle adoration and back into friendship. 

Before it does, though, Shotaro is going to kiss Sungchan until both of their lips are swollen from the effort and maybe until the sun comes up.

That’s what the long summer days are for, aren’t they?

♡

Sungchan learns that Shotaro’s boyfriend’s name is Renjun and he’s an art student. He meets him over facetime once and he thinks they’re very sweet. Renjun talks him through a meltdown about his major and tells him “Listen, level up. Talk to your advisor. It’ll all be okay.” and it will because Renjun is nice but Professor Suh is nicer and will do what he can to ease Sungchan’s fears about his future. 

Renjun is a boy for all seasons and Sungchan watches Shotaro watch him and sees what meeting that boy feels like. That grounding, balancing...ness that comes from having a relationship that can withstand the weather and temperatures. Renjun is stable and Shotaro looks at him like he is not only the moon, but the sun and stars, too. 

Maybe that’s what love is. An eternal, season passing, and consistent thing. Maybe the love that can last a season is still love but a lesser love—it is no less sweet but it matters less in the grand scheme of things.

When Shotaro was Sungchan’s summer boy, everything came in whirlwinds and the world moved with all of the fierceness of a rollercoaster, and the only slow moments they had were spent underneath the stars and wrapped up in each other’s arms. It was nice, comfortable, but in the end, unsustainable because Sungchan would have to leave and the world would keep spinning while summer ended.

It would come again, but Shotaro wouldn’t wait for Sungchan and Sungchan couldn’t wait for Shotaro. That was simply how their world spun.

“Are you seeing anyone?” Renjun asks from Shotaro’s bed, legs crossed beneath him as he drags a pink highlighter over a reading. Sungchan doesn’t know how they all ended up on facetime together doing homework but it’s...comfortable. There's something so nice about it and maybe, just maybe, it’s because it doesn’t feel like summer at all. He has to associate Shotaro with something else and this is helping. It's abundantly clear that Renjun knows that they were each other’s summer boys and he’s comfortable with that. Sungchan isn’t sure if he would be but he is grateful for Renjun's acceptance and kindness more than he can really say.

But Sungchan considers how to answer Renjun's question as he drums his pen against his desk. He is not seeing anyone. He’s not kissed someone since Shotaro’s fruit-flavored kisses lingered on his lips but the taste is fading and it’s time to think about doing just that. 

Donghyuck looks like his kisses would taste like sunshine and vanilla lip balm.

His drumming stops and even though he’s looking at his laptop keyboard in quiet realization, he can tell that Renjun and Shotaro are looking at him in mild concern at his silence. It’s understandable, really, and Renjun is gearing up to apologize when Sungchan gets his head on straight enough to make a proper sentence.

“I’m not seeing anyone but… when you asked I thought of one person I would...very much like to see.”

Shotaro grins at Sungchan, bringing his leg up to his chest and resting his chin on his knee. “Took you by surprise to think about them, huh?” Sungchan nods slowly and mulls over the fact that Donghyuck has all of the beauty and whimsy of a summer boy but all of the comfort and steadiness of a boy for all seasons. He’s been a constant in Sungchan’s life since his first day of college where his bubbly laugh echoed down the hallway from his room with Jaemin and his voice floated down the hallways while he did his vocal warm ups. He’s taken the same seat next to Sungchan since freshman seminar and brings him coffee to every class they share.

Donghyuck is forever wrapped up in a lovely, sunflower wrapping paper and Sungchan needs to know what it feels like to lay in his arms and watch the sunset in a park. 

“A little bit,” he admits and smiles at Renjun and Shotaro before turning the page in his notebook to keep doing his work. It’s funny, really, noticing that even when Shotaro had taken up most of his thoughts for the past few months that Donghyuck had always been there in the back of his mind as a lovely little presence. “He brings me coffee to literally every class. Without fail. He brought me a blanket to art history once because I told him I was cold and sleepy.”

Renjun snorts. “He sounds fun and a little like a public disturbance.”

That describes Donghyuck with nothing short of perfection and Sungchan finds himself smiling. It’s kind of funny, really. 

♡

Sungchan sits on the floor of Professor Suh’s office with a fresh iced coffee and a teddy bear held in his arms. It’s for emotional support, according to Professor Suh, who sits at his desk and is scrolling through Sungchan’s program completion so they can figure out what classes he’s taking in the spring. He’s kind and the wrinkles around his eyes are testaments to how much time he spends smiling and laughing. 

He's a little like another older brother to Sungchan and it’s nice to just sit in his office sometimes even if he’s trying to rope Sungchan into taking his medieval manuscripts class next semester. Sungchan _knows_ that class is a nightmare even if Professor Suh is the nicest professor that he’s ever had. It’s not even in his concentration and he’s got no intention to take it right now or ever if he can help it.

“Are you okay, by the way?” He asks after a moment of silence and Sungchan looks up at him with a soft sigh. “What? I’ve been your advisor for a year, Sungchan. I’ve started noticing the signs of deep thought and major contemplation.”

That’s true. Sungchan has had four separate meltdowns about if he wants to change his major or not and Professor Suh has been incredibly patient every time. He says that he took two psychology classes in his time in undergrad and he learned _so much_ from them but Sungchan thinks that this steady man built up of the stuff that makes up autumn is kind of full of shit and a bad therapist. “I’m not contemplating my major or dropping out again.”

“An excellent start,” Johnny says and turns his head to look over at Sungchan properly. “Is it something personal then? You don’t need to tell me, I know I’m just your advisor, but if you need someone who’s objective to listen…”

Sungchan squeezes the bear in his arms tight before he allows himself to just suck it up. “How do I tell a boy that I like him?” Professor Suh is married so he must have some idea of how the whole confession thing works. Right? Maybe? “Actually, you know what? Nevermind.”

“Is it Donghyuck?” The knowledge that Sungchan is that obvious about it stings just a little but then he remembers that this is Professor Suh, who has seen him and Donghyuck for two semesters and has watched their little song and dance. Even if he might be subtle, Donghyuck certainly isn’t and Sungchan just might be an idiot. Who knows! Sungchan nods and Professor Suh’s smile is so warm that any anxiety that might have made a home in his chest floats away. “Honestly, with Donghyuck you can literally just kiss him and I think everything will be okay. Did you know Taeil actually just smacked me very lightly on the cheek one day and told me that he’d marry me even if I was an absolute idiot?”

That sounded like Professor Moon.

“I didn't,” Sungchan admits and leans back on one hand. “Hey, Professor Suh?”

“Yeah?”

“You can put me down for medieval manuscripts.” The victorious shout that leaves him is a little ridiculous but Sungchan feels like he at least owes him that. “And...thanks.”

“No problem. You’re going to do ceramics with Professor Kim, right? Jongin might break my door down if you don’t.”

“No problem.”

They work through his schedule quickly and Sungchan pulls his phone out to smile at a text Donghyuck sends him of the stormy clouds on the horizon. It’s pretty and Donghyuck is a boy who can withstand a thunderstorm.

_hey_ , he texts as he leaves Professor Suh’s office, _wanna come over and watch the rain?_

_is that a date, sungchan?_

_it can be._

_i’m picking the playlist._

That’s perfectly okay with Sungchan.

♡

Donghyuck is Sungchan’s boy for every season. They lay together in his twin bed as SZA pours from Sungchan’s JBL speaker, lips moving slow and sweet as rain beats heavy against the windows. The mid-November chill is just outside but it doesn’t matter with Donghyuck’s sturdy weight on his chest and strong thighs pressed close to his own. It feels like the drowsy late summer as Donghyuck licks into Sungchan’s mouth and takes the taste of rose tea out of his to pull it into his own.

Donghyuck’s hand slides up his shirt with the tingling of spring and Sungchan pulls him closer with the ferocity of winter and every moment feels like forever.

It didn’t feel like that before.

Donghyuck playfully licks his cheek and Sungchan laughs brightly with a late autumn thunderclap. His hair smells like cucumber mint and Sungchan nuzzles his nose into the soft brown strands as Donghyuck wiggles his arms beneath Sungchan’s body to hold him as close as he can. He cradles Donghyuck’s cheek in one hand and with a kiss to his hair lets him know that he is not going anywhere. This is where he is and where he will be.

Sungchan is not meant to be a summer boy. He's not meant to have a summer boy, either, and while he will always love the taste of strawberry ramune, he much prefers the lemon candies that linger on Donghyuck’s tongue. 

Jisung comes into the room as they fall asleep and is careful to close the door quietly, smiling softly with Sungchan as he meets his sleepy eyes.

Time slows down as Sungchan’s eyes close and he’s not in love with Donghyuck yet but he’s well on his way there. 

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/faeriedoyoung)   
>  [cc](https://curiouscat.me/faeriedoyoung)


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